Are There Really More Rapes Happening?

A girl, dressed as lady justice, stood as participants of a candle light were stopped by the police, New Delhi, Jan.13

A number of cases of violence against women are coming to light in the wake of the Delhi bus gang rape, a phenomenon that women’s groups say shows that local media and police are paying more attention to the problem – not that the incidence of violence is increasing.

The latest brutal incident to get reported: On Sunday, police in India’s eastern state of Bihar recovered the body of a semi-naked woman hanging from a tree in a mango orchid. India’s media screamed rape.

Such incidents often get buried in Indian newspapers, if covered at all, said Aruna Roy, a social activist. But since the death last month of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student from injuries incurred during a brutal gang rape on a Delhi bus, the media has turned its spotlight on such events.

“All this hype so far - writing on rape – has began after the Delhi incident,” Ms. Roy said. “The gravity of it somehow has penetrated into the consciousness of the media.”

Statistics show there were 3,000 cases of reported rape in 1973 and over 24,000 in 2011. Partly, the jump reflects the fact women feel more empowered to come forward when raped, women’s groups say. But it also shows an increasing friction between a modernizing society, with women more regularly in public spaces, and a conservative culture dominated by men, they add.

Activists say police have often refused to register rape cases, which means even today the reported numbers of rapes are much lower than actual incidents. In other cases, there may be family pressure on a victim to hush up an abuse, which is seen in many communities as a source of shame.

Media attention has put pressure on police to be more efficient in dealing with rape cases, Ms. Roy said.

In the weeks after the Delhi incident, during mass protests calling for better security and harsher punishments for rapists, police officers in the capital defended their record, pointing to the quick arrest of six suspects.

Five of the suspects have been charged with her murder and could face the death penalty if found guilty. Lawyers for the five say their clients are innocent. Their next pre-trial hearing is Thursday. A sixth suspect is expected to face trial in juvenile court.

But senior police officers and government ministers also acknowledged they must tackle the rising wave of crimes against women. In Delhi, police officers have been told they must quickly deal with alleged cases of rape, according to a city police spokesman.

The central government has asked a commission headed by a former chief justice to look into how to battle the problem, including suggesting ways to clear out a backlog of thousands of rape cases that are pending in India’s legal system. The commission will submit its report this month.

K.S. Anupam, senior superintendent of police for the Bhagalpur district, where the latest incident in Bihar was reported, said there were marks on the woman’s neck. The police have detained a few people in connection with the murder but none have been formally charged, she said. Police is looking into whether the murder involved rape, she added. The official autopsy has not yet been completed.

The deceased woman, who hails from eastern state of West Bengal, had boarded a train to Delhi on Friday night with her 10-year-old son and other relatives. According to police, the woman jumped off the train in Bihar. It wasn’t clear as to why she did so, police said.

Separately, police on Monday said they had arrested another suspect in the alleged rape of a 29-year old woman in the northwestern state of Punjab. Police earlier had arrested six suspects and said they were searching for one other person.

All the seven men are currently under police custody. They will be produced again before a local court on Jan. 16 after which they will be sent to judicial custody, according to police. Attempts to reach the men, who don’t yet have lawyers and have not been officially charged, were not successful.

The incident took place Friday when the woman was traveling alone on a public bus to her village in Punjab. The driver, named by police as Daler Singh, and conductor, named only as Ravi, then allegedly drove her to a spot where they were joined by five other men. The group allegedly took her to a house and raped her, police said.

Harpal Singh, a police officer investigating the case, said the police is currently trying to identify the owner of the bus.

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